Imperturbability
by Joyful Requiem
Summary: Patience is a virtue. I always explain this to the younger ones and yet it still lacks... My poor Lopunny, learning this the only way young ones currently know how...-Gardevoir ::First Fic::


"How long until we reach?"

The journey has been a long one and she was sick of traveling through the seemingly endless forest. By both sides of her were two large masses of muscle. Their eyes stuck straight ahead, ignoring the complaining Lopunny. They both knew that this was indeed a long trip. Longer then they had expected and were told. The weather wasn't on their side either. Causing their already dreary day to become much worst.

"Malady, we'll be there soon…"

One replied, lifting his large head, managing to pull of a smile, despite that fact that his legs were killing him. Nidorino were definitely not built for running this fast for so long. They were indeed trained for this. All knowing that Lopunny were naturally amazing runners. It was amazing enough in her speed that they were catching up.

Barely that was.

Yet still, they were keeping their own quite well. Though, the Lopunny wasn't all that impressed. These were her usual escorts. Her usual over protective nidorino escorts. They were trained from birth to protect her and only her during her travels between the two corresponding Pokémon villages. Nothing dangerous had happened to her yet, which caused her to question why she needed them in the first place. First of all, most nidorino aren't quite that large to begin with. They were famous for their quick tempers and extreme stubbornness. Her escorts did have those natural traits that all had, except for the fact that they were huge! The largest that she had ever seen. They were nearly twice the usual size of most and if even possible, their tempers were worst…

She could still remember that poor rattata that merely startled her while trying to get by. Her larger Nidorino escort, who she liked to call Colonel, chased the poor thing down right into a river. She wasn't quite sure if it was able to swim out or got washed away from the current… She was still yet to tell the elder about that incident. If she ever quite remember to tell her, that is. The guilt hasn't exactly set in enough for her to remember all too much. The light rain that had recently started began to slightly strengthen. Her fur that already felt a bit wet started to become damp. She hated her fur wet, like most female Pokémon. It only made her impatience grow and her annoyance was directed towards Colonel, who didn't seem to notice the rain at all at this moment.

"Colonel… Can't we stop? Surely we don't have to keep going with this weather!" She complained. Her face directed towards the sky at the moment, wincing lightly to the darkening of the clouds above.

She was sure that Colonel or the second Nidorino, who she had nicknamed Ridget, didn't notice the rain at all. They were both two big buckets of muscle in a shell. They had no fur whatsoever or anything else quite easily damageable on their body that could actually upset them. Which, oddly gotten her more upset.

"Lady Lopunny…"

Ridget called, looking up at her with a small frown. He was into getting to the next village as much as Colonel did.

At all costs.

Even if there was a hurricane, earthquake, something! The two were dead set on their destination and Ridget seemed to be the one this time to remind her.

"We are late enough as it is!"

He exclaimed. She swore she saw him shudder. She wasn't quite sure why, until he spoken up once more.

"The elder will indeed have our hide when we return to the village after this. Please don't make it any harder then it is."

Lopunny frowned. She knew her elder was tough. She was raised and trained by her after all. Yet she never left a physical scar on her that would allow her to cringe at the sound of punishment from her. Well, actually, she could, but not as much as any other Pokémon in her village. It always made her wonder. Her attention was drawn towards Colonel once more. He only glanced at her, expecting that she was going to ask the same question, he shook his head. They couldn't stop. Ridget was right. They were much too late as it is to stop.

Lopunny sighed, she hated this job. She was next in line to lead the village, the elder said so. Even though she's young, much younger the any other Pokémon that had lead before her, she was told multiple times that she was made for the job. She was born to be a leader and soon, when she becomes the leader, she would do a great job. Maybe even better then the elder before her.

Though she seriously doubted that.

She was much too young, even she had thought that. She was still learning the laws and regulations between both hidden Pokémon villages before the elder passes away. Which some had made many jokes about saying that that mustn't be too long ahead. Yet, in her young age, she had to remember them and enforce them at all times. Then she has to know when to break them for her villages own safety and even convince the villagers of why she had done such a crime. It was all much too complicating for her to understand. But the elder insisted that she goes on these nearly daily travels. She swore that they weren't much help for her. She wasn't learning anything from what she can recall.

"We're nearly there Malady! Not too long now!"

She heard Ridget exclaim in relief. She smiled a bit. Maybe she wasn't the only one tortured by the rain at this moment. It already severely dampened her fur, which she was forced to ignore. Her feet, were beginning to ache just a little bit. The runs were starting to take their toll. 'It's about time…' She couldn't help but think to herself. She was surprised she got a word out of them during the run. She was more surprised the two hadn't started bickering yet. Hopefully they would be the same on their way back. She highly doubted it, but it couldn't hurt to wish.

At their final stretch towards the village, Colonel picked up speed which barely given him the lead. This action caused Ridget to glance towards him. A 'brow' rising as he watched his older associate before calling out towards him,

"Hey old man, sure you can handle working yourself up so much?"

Lopunny sighed; she knew exactly where this was going. Her strides become shorter which allowed her to slow down behind the two, giving Colonel enough space to nearly tackle into Ridget.

She didn't pay too much attention to them; even if it was quite hard to ignore both Colonel ranting and the rain. They hadn't noticed how much she had slowed. She didn't even realize that she had slowed enough for both bickering Nidorino to have a significant amount of space between them. Her attention soon was directed at the blurred trees that she managed to dodge quite easily. Nimble, was she on her feet. She never had crashed into a tree once. She was quite proud of that accomplishment. Yet even that didn't seem to keep her thoughts off of how awful this next meeting may be. The forest wasn't interesting enough to keep her mind off of such thoughts.

'Nothing ever had.' She couldn't help think to herself. She was just going to her meeting. Whether she wanted to or not. As always she would sit there, listening to old, weird smelling elders who seemed nearly deformed. Then that weird perverted elderly Machamp would make some horrible comment about her b--

_**CRASH!**_

All she could find herself doing was screaming. Nearly tripping over her feet from the rumbling ground, she gripped onto the nearest tree Soft palmed paws gripped tightly, waiting for the rumbling ground to stop. Her eyes closed tightly shut as she awaited for the earthquake pass away.

'Holy _crap_ what was that?!'

Was her first thought, not very much realizing that the earthquake had already passed. After a few minutes, she opened her eyes. Chocolate eyes wide, trying to find anything out of place in the forest. Everything seemed the same. Nothing on fire, no cracks on the ground, no large stampedes of Tauros trampling anyone down Though, she found it odd that her escorts hadn't ran back to retrieve her yet. Other then that, everything seemed quite fine…

"Colonel…? Ridget….?"

She found herself cry. Her body was still hugged tightly against the tree. She had no thoughts of moving until they came.

If they came that was…

She frowned, she didn't like that thought at all. She slowly pushed herself away from the tree. Trying to remember which direction they had ran before the whole earthquake had started. The oddest sounding earthquake she had ever heard. She gave one last look around for her two Nidorino. The quick idea of checking out where the sound originated crossed her mind. Even if the shock of the earthquake scared the hell out of her, it couldn't hurt to check out where it came from, right? Nervously, did she start. Her pace slow; her lopped ears lifting ever so slightly, listening for any sound that was out of place in the forest or even the cries of Colonel. He surely should be looking for her now. Unless… He was hurt? No, that couldn't be. She frowned to the thought. Even an earthquake such as this couldn't have affected ol' Colonel. Ridget had more of a chance getting injured then him.

'They're fine… They're fine…' Was all she could repeat to herself. Her pace quickened as she passed tree by tree towards where the sound came from. It began to occur to her that maybe her idea wasn't much of a smart one. Obviously, she found herself walking toward danger other then walking away. It always had been a small habit of hers to do something as that. She couldn't help it though! Trouble was so infrequent in these parts that it wouldn't hurt to just be a tad curious once in a while. Though, she couldn't help but wonder if such curiosity would be the end of her.

It possibly could.

She came to an abrupt stop. A large tree happened to be in her way. Such a thing shouldn't have shocked the Lopunny all too much. If it wasn't for the fact that it was charred. She had seen fallen trees before. Most falling from old age, or some rampaging Pokémon that took their anger out on the poor thing. She took a quick look around. It had seemed to be deserted. She heard nothing. She didn't see anything out of place either. She didn't waste any time making her way towards it. Her eyes widened in curiosity to the sight. This tree was indeed charred. Burnt all the way through which explained why it was in her way in the first place. But what she couldn't understand was the way it was charred. From what she could remember, fire spread through wood. Meaning whatever that had burnt this tree should have burned everything else down with it.

Even with that, this impact was much to clean. It was nearly circular like. This was much too clean for any sort of fire wielding Pokémon to possibly inflict. She frowned, tracing the outline of the mark, before pressing her paw harder against it. It wasn't hot. It wasn't even a bit warm. It was cold as if this was here for weeks. She knew better; it was made recently. She couldn't understand at the moment. What could possibly make something such as this? Completely boggled, Lopunny picked her head up, staring at the two trees beside it. They were both fine.

Untouched basically.

Her confusion set in even more. This made no sense! Climbing over the tree, she looked before her and yet another shock. Was there ever a clearing in this forest? Expect for the two villages, there weren't any other clearings. So when did this happen? When did another barren field appear in such a dense forest? The trees that had once been there were wiped clean and the only indication that there had been any before were their shattered stumps. This made her increasingly worried of what the possible cause of this destruction was.

The rain that had been long forgotten by her started to strengthen once more. The clouds thickened above in the gray skies, causing the land around her to darken. It become increasing hard for Lopunny to see. Her vision was blurred by the rain and the darkness that started to fall upon the forest didn't help either. But, she could have sworn, that she saw something out there.

In this clearing, there were much more then stumps here. She wasn't sure, but there seemed to be something out there. It almost seemed shadow like. Its figure sprawled between two stumps from what she could make out. She wasn't sure of what to make of this situation. It was raining. She was lost. Her escorts were gone and there was something out there. Something she couldn't tell if it was dangerous or not. And yet, despite all this, she was listening more to curiosity then common sense. How this was so? She was moving towards it.

Step,

Step,

Breath,

Step,

Twitch,

Tremble,

The Lopunny stopped where she was. The more she moved up towards the figure the more unusual it had became. It was still hard to make out what it could possibly be. It seemed black or blue… She couldn't tell which and she swore on its arm, which happened to be sprawled out in front of it, was a spike.

A white dangerous looking, pointy spike…

She twitched, indeed not liking the few details she could make out from it. Yet she still couldn't make out what it could possibly be. It was still a mystery to her. She didn't know any Pokémon that had a spike above its paw and now that she thought about it. What Pokémon had such colors as this one? Maybe she was surely mistaken by the pouring rain and that she was nearly in hysterics since she had no sort of extra protection that she was used to. She could be making up things. She highly doubted it though. She wasn't the sort to see things.

Yet this, this was beginning to become really nerve-wracking…

The mystery of what this thing could possibly be made her want to near it more and more. Ignoring the dangers of what could possibly be bestowed upon her when she approaches it too close. She wanted to see it, learn what Pokémon she didn't learn about yet. Wait, what if it wasn't even a Pokémon at all? She twitched. That thought stopped her right in her tracks. What if that _thing _really wasn't? What would she do then? Scream in terror? Run back home? Where ever that was… This was becoming more and more of a dangerous situation.

"You're… Them… With them…"

She had been so deep in thought; she barely caught those few words. At first she thought she was hearing something and she nearly ignored it. Those pondering thoughts of this being dangerous threatened to take over her senses once more.

"Why… Side… With them… Why?"

Lopunny dared to look down on where the voice happened to be coming from. Her body grew rigid as she stared down into dark crimson eyes. She at first stepped back. Her body started to tremble, which happened to be the only sane reaction it happened to have done through the whole incident.

"I-I…. I've done nothing…"

It was still speaking. Yet she knew nothing of what it was saying. She only seemed too stuck on staring at the crimson pupils that happened to be just as well stuck on her. She wasn't too sure on what she was more shocked by. That it was actually moving or its eyes. The color wasn't the only fascinating thing, but the deep emotion of hatred that emitted from them caused her to stay frozen in place. She wasn't quite sure how to respond towards it as well… It spoke nothing that made any sense to her. Its mouth wasn't even moving…

"I won't… I won't…"

It won't what? She couldn't understand the meaning of anything it said. It sounded hurt and frustrated. That was all she could make out from the voice. From what that is; she didn't know. She watched one of its arms lift. This one being happened to be the opposite one that was lying in front of it before when she found it. The other arm, his left arm, was limp by his side. She couldn't see the meaning of why it was. The raised arm had gotten her full attention. What it did next amazed her…

She wasn't able to see when the attack started to form. Yet through the dense rain, she could see a bright blue ball of light originating from the middle of its paw. Its teeth was clenching tightly as it seemed to be concentrating. The more it did, the more she realized that that bright blue light was growing…

What in the world was it doing?!

"I-I will… Never…."

She could hear it mumble before she found that ball of light growing twice in size. Stumbling back in fright, Lopunny's instincts to run never reached her mind. She only trembled there. A lump in her throat that felt so huge kept her from screaming.

"Lady Lopunny!"

"Malady!"

A blur of purple rushed passed her. The steam train of bulging muscle she loved to call Colonel rushed passed her and leaped towards the odd creature in one ferocious attack. Ridget skidded beside her. A warning roar passed his throat before trotting protectively over Lopunny. Dazed and confused Lopunny sat there. Staring between Ridget and Colonel who had just came. The pair of crimson eyes that captivated her before was once again hidden by its lids. The attack it was once creating vanquished and now it was lying under Colonel. She was surprised nearly was much as Colonel was at this moment. It was beaten, much too easily.

"Milady …"

Ridget mumbled as he nudged the shocked Lopunny. Her damp fur bothered him a little. She was in the rain much too long. Her skin and fur was dreadfully cold and now he was more afraid of her being sick then the atrocity Colonel had just brought down.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt? What was that thing?"

She wished she knew how to answer those questions. She was guessing she was alright. Whatever that attack was meant to do was stopped by Colonel. She was even more then sure that her heart was still beating in her chest.

Quite rapidly though…

Yet that thing… What was it?!

"I'm fine… I'm fine…" She assured Ridget. Her trembling paw reached to brush over the Nidorino's rough face. Smiling weakly as she did before turning her attention to Colonel who was still staring at it. He seemed to be debating over to how to get rid of it.

"Colonel…" She mumbled as she watched his head lower before turning towards Lopunny with a small grunt. She knew he hated to be distracted when his mind was set on something. She surely was glad he was trained to listen to her at all costs when he knew she was speaking towards him. "Colonel what are you doing…?"

Colonel rolled his eyes before frowning towards her. His leg reached up towards its throat, pressing down on it before speaking,

"Do I really have to answer that M'Lady?"

His voice was a low mumble. He was still intent on what it seemed to be killing it. She could see it there. Colonel never was one to let something off easily. Any threat towards her, he immediately thought was too much of a threat to live. She hated that behavior of his. It was much too brutal... His mouth opened once more before taking a hold of the dark blue throat. Lopunny stared for a moment. He couldn't possibly go through with killing it could he? It hadn't actually done anything to her, so it didn't deserve to die! …Right?

"C-Colonel, h-hold on!"

Said Nidorino turned his head towards Lopunny. Showing much more annoyance then he had originally held for her before. He disliked her interrupting him so much. He needed to finish this and she was getting in the way. She scurried to him. Nearly tripping on her wet pads and tumbling into the mud under them. He would have found the whole sight amusing if it wasn't for the fact of her wet paws reaching to his muzzle. Pulling them apart from the atrocity's throat and pushing his head back with a weak shove.

"You know I don't like you doing such things…"

She hated when he killed the innocent and this technically was. He indeed hadn't hurt her. It merely just spoke and she was sure it wouldn't possibly injure her if it wasn't already injured itself.

"Look I'm fine. You see? She twisted her body a little, proving her point more. She was hoping more this was getting through to the large Pokémon. "There is no need for you to do this…" She took her attention back to the odd creature while ignoring the hard eyes of Colonel which glared at her. He would get over it like many times before, hopefully. IT indeed was injured. There were bruises on its body and its arm seemed to have the most of it. Its face seemed dog liked. The usually erect ears dropped slightly from its unconscious state and from its ragged breathing… It must have been through… A lot…

"We're bringing him back to the village…"

She suddenly decided. Ridget gawked as Colonel dug his claws into the ground.

"Malady! You can't possibly be _**serious**_!" Ridget exclaimed as he scrambled towards her. He stared down towards the figure lifted up by her arms. "That… This... Thing! Wasn't it just trying to hurt you! You can't possibly be serious!" He nudged her arms desperately, knowing if Colonel spoke to her, she wouldn't like it one bit. He knew he was the nicer one and he was quite proud of that. Hopefully the stubborn bunny would put it down. "I beg of you! Put it down! Let Colonel just get rid of it!"

The Nidorino frowned. She had ignored him from the start and she still held protectively of it. He could never understand Lopunny. Never at all! She was about to get wounded by the very thing she was protecting and she wasn't hesitating at all as she did so. Colonel was one tough guy. Even if she was the next to be elder and he was suppose to listen to every official command she gives him. He was still so stubborn. Stubborn enough to get even get him nervous. Colonel was one not to have patience. He still was waiting for him to go insane under her orders.

"Colonel…" Lopunny mumbled. Staring at the Nidorino whose attention was still on the Pokémon that was propped up by her arms. "We're bringing… "She took a quick glance down towards it. "Him with us Colonel." She waited for the argument to arrive. For him to argue against her decision and prove how insane it would be. Yet he stood, glaring towards the thing with impassive eyes. She was growing nervous now. She wasn't sure what Colonel was going to pull now and she definitely couldn't protect it if he decides to lash out.

"It's an order Colonel."

She waited patiently. He made no sudden movements. None of which she would have to grow too anxious about. The first movement Colonel had finally made was to turn up towards her. She couldn't tell at all what he may be feeling at this moment. He wasn't glaring, just merely staring before down back towards it.

"Mala-"

"Its. An. Order."

She waited for his answer. She may actually be winning this. It may have been the first time she had actually used her authority to the fullest without having much of a second thought. She had to remind herself she was fighting for a life here. One that she could easily save if she brought it back to the village and have him fully healed. She was guessing it was a he. It surely seemed as one.

Minutes passed. Each one more nerve-wracking then the other as the silent Colonel stared towards her. Ridget who kept distance away from the two started to fidget in his spot. He too felt the tension between the two and he wasn't quite sure on what to make of this. He had the urge to stand by Lopunny. Just incase if Colonel would actually disobey her orders and kill it. He wasn't as big or as strong as Colonel. As much as he liked to annoy the old Pokémon about his age, he still feared him. Colonel had authority over him. So much of his fear came from nature. He couldn't betray his superiors.

"If t-that is… your wish Malady."

The words finally slipped through Colonel's jaw. His eyes slightly narrowed as he gave a small flare of his nostrils. Lopunny only hoped that was one way that he relieved some of his frustration. Despite that, she gave a small smile to him. He was actually listening to her! She watched as he neared her before grunted a call towards Ridget to help him. With a few clumsy attempts, the two nidorino were able to place the body upon Colonel's back while trying this best to avoid Colonel's spikes that happened to be oddly more erect then normal.

"Thank you Colonel…" Lopunny said with a small smile before trying to stand up on her wobbly feet. She had trusted Ridget more to carry it. Due to her lack of strength she couldn't possibly now. She allowed Colonel to walk first before walking slowly behind with Ridget. She barely noticed herself shivering. "Will you be okay Milady?" She heard Ridget ask. She blinked, looking down towards Ridget who was frowning up at her. The same as he did earlier today. She once again smiled, arms covering her own self before turning to look back to the body that laid on Colonel's back.

"Yes Ridget… I'll be just fine…"

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_First Chapter End 3_

_Comment & Be Nice D:_

_And if you see any grammar problems please tell me o.o; _


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